e ought not, as men in Christ Jesus, to be carried away by a childish love of novelty, for we worship a God who is ever the same, and of whose years there is no end.

In some matters "the old is better." There are certain things which are already so truly new, that to change them for anything else would be to lose old gold for new dross. The old, old gospel is the newest thing in the world; in its very essence it is for ever good news.

In the things of God the old is ever new, and if any man brings forward that which seems to be new doctrine and new truth, it is soon perceived that the new dogma is only worn-out heresy dexterously repaired, and the discovery in theology is the digging up of a carcase of error which had better have been left to rot in oblivion.

In the great matter of truth and godliness, we may safely say, "There is nothing new under the sun."

12 comments:

In prayer, I often just sit in amazment and complete awe (and thankfulness!) at how little we really do know down here, (if there was a "down here") my greatest impression is how minute our understanding of God really is. Even the wisest one of us, past and present barely scratch the surface of understanding.

His grace is more than sufficient. His grace is sufficient, indeed.His Word a wellspring of living water that quenches the soul, and layer by layer lifts the veils that blind us.

Spurgeon was such a great wordsmith, able to capture a whole feeling or dynamic in a few, well chosen words.

Isn't this what we're seeing so much of today? Childishness, in resistance to and petulance toward authority; and novelty, in that almost anything can be spouted in church and legitimized simply because it's "new."

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1. We don't ban people merely for expressing dissenting (even hostile) opinions. Disagree as strongly as you likeand as long as you refain from profanity, blasphemy, or gross and intentional discourtesies, we'll prolly let your comment stand. (Though if it's significant enough, we'll prolly answer it,too.)

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Anyhoo, getting back to Spurgeon, amen. There are no new heresies under the sun! We are viscerally inclined to evil (Deuteronomy 31:21; Romans 3:10-18), and our righteousness is but filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). How did those "new" and "innovative" approaches at worshipping God on our own terms work out for the Babelites with their tower and the Israelites with their golden calf?

3500 years ago, God decreed that of the entire generation He had miraculously delivered out of Egypt—even Moses, and except for Joshua and Caleb—not a single one would not set foot in the Promised Land due to their stubborn grumbling and complaining, despite the divine Grace that they had witnessed and been the beneficiaries of. 3000 years ago, David wrote in Psalms 14 and 53, "There is none who does good, not even one." There is nothing that any of us we can do to purify ourselves before a holy God who cannot abide sin. 2000 years ago, Paul quoted those psalms in his letter to the Romans (3:10-18). Our plight was set out over 2000 years ago—nothing has changed since then.

There has only been one other constant that is relevant to us, beside man's utter depravity: God's redeeming Grace. We stand condemned by His holy Law, and there is nothing we can do to save ourselves, but entrust ourselves to the Lord and learn to rely wholly upon His grace that we don't deserve, our sins paid for by the Lamb, Jesus Christ, the Son of God whom God gave so that we could have eternal life.

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